The Moon Riddle
by TeaOnFire
Summary: In the time and universe of The Croods, the discovery of a scared animal girl leads the family on a new adventure to find her endangered friend and face off against a new threat to their survival. Kim learns about the meaning of friendship and family, and what it means to have sacrificial love for others around her, even when the risk is higher than ever before.
1. Chapter 0

**A/N: Welp, this is my very first fanfiction story, so I would love any feedback on how I'm doing! If you would like to see what my characters really look like, please visit my DeviantArt. I'm** ** _SnowTheSlipper_** **there. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!**

The first sign was in the trees. (It's always the trees; they're smarter than me.) Soon the grass was playing along, followed by rocks and shrubs and everything else on the ground.

That includes me, by the way.

Everything was shaking, and in a panic, I leapt up in the air. However, I didn't stay there for long—my small wings were not enough and I didn't have much instinct to keep me airborne. Thus, I crashed down to the ground within moments of catching air under my wings. Unfortunately, my extremely winter-thick fur wasn't ready to fall out quite yet, so I was extremely heavy and the opposite of aerodynamic. Even if the wind were to pick up, I couldn't hope to ride it.

I stopped thinking about flying and started thinking about running for my life when a huge crack suddenly appeared in the ground with a deafening boom. I clapped my hands over my sensitive ears and took off running away from that direction, hoping that my family was doing the same. The cliff had split unbearably close to home. However, at that realization, I skidded in my tracks at the edge of the forest, and whirled around to run back across the field toward where my parents and siblings were—but another boom exploded just a short ways in front of me. I screamed, tears streaming down my face, and cried out, "Mom! Dad!"

No response came except more of that booming and crackling.

I started to back away, step by step, as the cracks spread. "Lar! Slim!" I sobbed, trying to be heard over it. I thought… was that an answer, or the screech of rock scraping rock? " _Mom_!"

The ground bucked under me, and I sobbed, wiping my face with my furry forearm before turning tail and charging into the forest as fast as my little digits could carry me. My wings and tail seemed to catch on _everything_ as I tried to escape that horrible world-crumbling. I ripped at foliage with my claws in desperation, flattening my ears against my head to keep from hitting them on stuff. I extended the claws on my toes as well for better traction, but nothing I did felt like enough. The world seemed to be dissolving right behind me, the ground falling down almost before I put my paws onto it…

Then I was launched into the air as the ground surged like a wave in the sea. I screamed my lungs out as I was hurtled toward the jungle bordering to forest, trying to grab onto something—anything—before I crashed into the ground. I managed to catch myself in a tangle of vines, but then it turned out to be a trap, and I couldn't get out of them. I struggled harder and harder as panic mounted in me, and suddenly I couldn't breathe, and I tried to hack at the disgusting-tasting things with my teeth… but then the world went black around me, and I had to give up the fight when I could no longer move. Sleep came like an animal, whapping me over the head with palpable strength, forcing sleep and a major headache on my frazzled mind. The fear faded with everything else as I lost all consciousness.

~~~(Guy)~~~

When I woke up, everyone had already left, by the look of things. Only Belt and my bear-owl, Red, were still there. When Red realized that I was awake, she crooned happily and bounded over to me, licking my face. "Ah! Hey!" I exclaimed with a laugh. "Good-morning to you, too!"

Belt grumbled at us both, apparently not done sleeping just yet.

I continued to play around with Red, until I heard a voice calling my name from down the beach. " _Gu-uyy_ ," they called.

"Eep, is that you?" I yelled back.

"Yes, are you awake now?" Eep asked, barreling down the beach on all fours until she reached the cove and tackled me. "Ah, you are, good. Come with me, I found something _really_ weird."

~~~(Moon)~~~

I didn't sense the tree before I hit it. That's usually the way it goes. There's me, there's a tree, I hit the tree, the end. However, this time, I was higher than I had thought I was, and plummeted a good distance before actually hitting the ground. I groaned and brought my tail around into my lap, patting it until I found the smooth bit on the end. I rubbed the smooth bit gently, wondering if something was wrong with it. Then I tried to extend my wings, but they were snared by the plants around. I sighed disgustedly, hating the feel of greasy plants on my skin and fur, and decided it was time to get help. "Kim!" I yelled out toward the jungle. "Kim! I'm stuck!" I got no response, and growled softly to myself. "Maybe I should have caught her some breakfast," I muttered to myself. " _Then_ she wouldn't go off by herself… _Kim!_ "

~~~(Eep)~~~

I heard the thing growling, and motioned for Guy to stop walking and look around the edge of the wall of plants. He nodded and peeked through, then gasped softly. I followed suit, wanting to get another glimpse at the… whatever it was.

It, or maybe _she_ , bent over a small pool in the ground, clawed hands outstretched as though to try and catch something. She had funny, furry legs, with very long feet, and stood on only her toes. She had a long, fluffy tail, and from her elbows to her fingers was more fur. Her ears were big and pointed and furry, shaped like a cat's. Her hair was long and curly, and was dark red with even darker streaks in it. She even had a pair of wings. She wore a slightly worn-looking animal-pelt dress over her top half, the strap of leather coming up over around her neck but not covering her slightly red, heavily freckled shoulders. Also, she looked like she was about the age of my brother—way too young to be out in the jungle all by herself.

Suddenly she looked up and levelled her green-eyed gaze _directly at us_. We froze, but could tell that she saw us. Guy stood up slowly, and she responded by crouching low and backing up, spreading out her wings widely and generally looking like she was trying to be threatening. "Shh, shh," guy said soothingly. "Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you… look, we're people, like you… sort of like you…"

I stood up alongside him, looking at the "girl" on the ground. "I'm Eep," I said. "And this is Guy. And Belt."

She narrowed her eyes at us, but I saw the claws on her fingers and toes retract slowly. "I-I'm… Kim…?" she said nervously, evidently unsure whether she should be talking to us.

"Well, Kim, looks like you need help catching some food. If you want, we could help you," Guy said, leveling his spear at the water in demonstration. She looked like she had no clue what the tool was for or what it could do. "Here, watch."

Guy stared at the water for a moment, and then deftly flicked his spear. Second only to my dad, he never missed a toss with the thing. He walked over and pulled it out of the water with a "Ta-da!"

Kim's eyes went wide when she saw the fish impaled on the sharpened stone at the end of the stick. She inched a little closer, much the way I did when I walked on all fours. "Here, you can have—hey!" Guy started.

Kim grabbed the fish with teeth that could only be classified as fangs, yanked it off the spear, and took off running into the jungle. "Oh, no you don't," I said, and charged after her on my knuckles. Guy called after me, but I wasn't paying attention to him.

The girl was fast, whatever she was, and her long arms combined with her strange legs gave her animal-like grace when dodging over and around stuff. She even bounded right of the trunks off trees a few times. She suddenly changed directions with a gasp, dropping the fish and running almost twice as fast. I scooped up the fish as I ran by, putting it in my bag and dropping back to all fours in hot pursuit. She screamed out, "Moon!" and I was confused instantly. What was she talking about? I stopped running and hid in the bushes, not about to let her know that I had kept up with her.

"Moon? Where are you?! Moon!" she cried, screeching to a halt in a large clearing. She looked around wildly, obviously panicking. "Moon! Where did you go?!"

"Hey, are you looking for someone?" I asked, approaching slowly. "Someone like you?"

"Y-yes," Kim said, backing away from me. Her ears went back, like a scared animal's. "H-he's… Moon. I c-can't live without him!"

"Why not?"

"He's… he lights up. At night. He keeps the dark away… I hate the dark… and he can't live by himself, either! I have to find him before he gets hurt!"

"Hey, I'm sure he'll be fine for a little bit," I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. "Tell you what. I'll help you. My family can help you find him; let's go get them looking."

"N-no, you don't understand… I can't… the jungle…"

"Hey," I said insistently. "We'll find him. And maybe you two can stay with us. We're good at surviving."

"I'm not," she whispered.

~~~(Kim)~~~

That night, around the campfire, I told the Croods my story. I told them about living with my parents and my eight siblings on the gathering lands on the edge of the Gray Forest, and about the cracking of the world that chased me into the jungles. "I've lived out here for two or three winters," I said. "I met Moon, my friend, during the first one. We never really get along, but… when he found me, I was starving. He helped me, and I learned that I could help him, too. We need each other, so… that's why I need your help to find him tomorrow."

"Why does he need your help?" the small boy, Thunk, asked.

"He has a weird problem," I said. "He says that everything looks the same to him. Light and dark, or different colours, or where things are—he can't tell anything. His eyes are sick. He says that it has always been that way for him. So, I can help him, and be like the good eyes he doesn't have. And he knows how to find food and water and stuff, so he helps me with that."

"How come… you don't get along?" Ugga, the mother of the three children, asked tentatively, a concerned look on her face.

"Oh, It's not like we don't _like_ each other," I said, putting my paws up. Then I held my face in those same paws and stared at the fire, thinking. "It's… he teases me too much is all. He always does dangerous stuff when I tell him not to, and won't listen when I tell him he shouldn't do something. He doesn't really listen to me at all. Also… he's the sort of person who always moves around. I grew up in a cave-maze. He always wants to get moving, keep walking, wake up at the crack of dawn and stay out _way_ too late… he's not like me at all. So we argue a lot."

"Hmm," she smiled with her eyes at me. "You two are probably good for each other."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, looking up at her.

"Oh, nothing," she said, and winked at Eep across the fire. "Hey, how old is Moon?"

"Oh… I think he's only a few winters older than I am," I said, counting on my fingers. "He told me how many winters he saw, once, but I don't remember exactly…"

"That's alright. I just wanted a general idea. Now, how about we all go to sleep? We have looking to do tomorrow."

I opted for sleep on the ground rather than in one of their hummocks. No one needed to forfeit their bed for me when I slept on the ground normally anyway, I told them. I made myself a little nest out of sand and filled it with fresh leaves and grasses, and then curled up inside, staring up at the stars and thinking of Moon. _Where could you have gone?_ I wondered. _I told you I was coming back… why can't you just listen to me once in a while?_

I got no answers from the stars.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hooray, chapter 1 is up! Hopefully it's more exciting; chapter 0 was mostly just there to explain stuff. It's time for flashbacks, I'll mention, which is going to happen in almost every chapter for a while. It took me a long time to get this up, but hopefully, I can get a schedule going within the next couple chapters. See you then!**

* * *

I woke up to waves lapping at my heels. Confused, I sat up slowly and shook sand out of my wings, looking down at where my feet stuck straight outward from the inflexible lower joint. I yawned hugely, letting out a doglike whine, and did a quick once-over on the fur of my forearms. I straightened my arms up over my head, stretching, and then rolled on my back to stretch my legs in the air. Because of the way they were built, my legs never went out totally straight. When I was done, I stood up, dusted off my legs, and walked toward where the Croods' beds were, brushing my paw pads off on each other.

"Ah, good morning!" said a voice. I looked up and saw Guy there, sitting in a tree. "I see you're an early riser."

"Yeah… Moon usually wakes me up before now though… hey, where'd everybody go?"

"For breakfast," he said, and pointed off toward the south. "Come up here, I'll show you where they are."

I hooked my claws in the bark of the tree and scrambled up it like a monkey, using my tail to grip branches and my wings for balance. I crouched on the branch next to Guy and followed his gaze, and saw them down the beach. It looked like they were riding on the backs of a pair of large creatures, and they were chasing after something else. "What're they hunting?" I asked curiously. "It's hard to see from here."

"Want to join them?" Guy asked.

"Well… sure."

~~~(Eep)~~~

It was taking a while to run the bird down. It _really_ didn't want to be caught by Red or Chunky, and though I could understand _why_ , chasing it up and down the beach endlessly was getting rather old. Red was starting to growl irritatedly, showing that she felt similarly about the whole situation. But then, all of a sudden, the bear-owl reared up on her hind paws and let loose a roar, scaring the hedgebird back toward where we were camped. "Red!" I exclaimed in surprise. "What's wrong with—… woah."

Out of nowhere, it seemed, the tall animal girl surged across the beach toward the creature, claws outstretched and fangs bared. The bird nearly tripped over itself in attempt to stop when she let loose a vicious-sounding cry of "Rr _rawr_!" Too late to avoid her, the bird screeched in vain as Kim pounced like a cat at its neck. Now that the target was not moving, my brother and I threw our spears into it, killing it instantly. Then, Kim, Chunky, and Red all dragged it toward our campfire together so that we could roast it. Thunk and I ran ahead to alert Mom, Dad, Gran, and Guy that the food was ready to be cooked and to set up a bigger fire.

"She's pretty awesome," I said to Guy as I reached him. "You saw her stop the bird, right?"

"Yeah, I saw. She was great. I didn't know she would do that, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, based on when we talked last night, I thought she would be too timid for taking on a bird like that."

"Eh, what can I say? We girls are the tough ones."

"Ha."

The bird was delicious, of course, but the real excitement was when Thunk and I told our parents about Kim's help in the hunt. Thunk seemed particularly enthusiastic about telling the story, so about halfway in, I sat back and let him do it. However, Kim herself seemed rather detached from the whole conversation, and was nibbling on a fair-sized portion of meat absently as she stared out at the jungle. I crawled up to her side, and said softly, "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said, even more softly. "Just worried since I haven't heard him calling yet."

"Is he super loud?" I asked playfully, pantomiming making my voice louder with cupped hands.

She giggled, I was gratified to hear. "No, he's just… super _whiny_. And he gets himself into lots of places he can't get out of," she said, turning to look at my face. "That's why I'm so scared. He might be stuck in a bush or a tree or somewhere awful right now, and I can't do anything to help him… and he'd have no idea that I was not nearby, not for a long time."

"Why not?"

"He's just a little slow."

"Hopefully we'll find him soon, then."

"Yeah… I'd hate it if he had to worry about me. It's usually the other way around, and… I have no idea what it would be like for him. Worried about me. I'm the careful one."

"Is he not very careful?"

"He's nuts, if you ask me."

I laughed. "Come now, eat your breakfast. You've earned it, and you need strength to help us in the search."

"Of course," she said, and then scarfed her food fast enough to make any caveman proud. I moved away from her to get more food as she licked residues off of her claws. I even brought her some more, which she readily accepted from my hand. It eerily reminded me of feeding my bear-owl, and I shook my head to rid that thought from my head. Kim was a person, not an animal, even if her looks said otherwise.

"Hey Kim, how's your hearing?" Guy whispered behind his hand when I sat next to him.

"Very good," Kim said, not even looking in our direction. "Why?"

"I thought that if we went out into the woods and hollered for Moon, you would be able to hear him respond and point us in the right direction," Guy said at regular volume. "Think you could do that?"

"Easy," Kim grinned, looking pleased about the situation for the first time. "How soon can we get started?"

"Right after we finish this—nevermind," Thunk said, shrugging off his previous statement as Gran gobbled up the last of the meat off the bird's bones.

Ugga, smiling, said, "Okay, Grug—are we all going?"

"Yeah, I say we should stick together, so that no-one gets lost in the jungle," Grug said, walking up to Kim with a curious expression on his face. "Alright, Kim, where should we start?"

"Umm… around our last camping place," Kim said, nodding when she made the decision. "That's where I last saw him. He had just come back from a pond when I woke up… he was eating breakfast… and I set out to get myself some. Then Eep and Guy found me, and when I ran back to camp, he was gone. So camp is where we should start calling."

"Remind me of the fellow's name again," Gran said, popping up next to Kim and making the blue-furred girl jump.

"Moonstone," she said. "Moonstone Riddle is his full name. But you can just call him Moon, like I do, and he'll know you're with me."

"Why does he have such a long name?" I asked. "That's weird."

"I don't know, why do you have such short names?" Kim replied sassily.

"Wha—yours is short too!" I retorted.

"No it isn't," Kim said. "My nickname is Kim. My real name is Kimmerald Silkie."

"Well—"

"Okay, enough," Guy intervened, evidently trying not to laugh as he did. "Let's get going, shall we? We're going to run out of daylight."

Kim muttered something under her breath. The only word I caught was "glow."

~Some years earlier…~

~~~(Moon)~~~

I heard footsteps approaching again, slow and deliberate. It was a creature of soft paws and two legs, I could tell by the softness of sound and the increments between steps. I wrapped my wings around myself tightly, trying to protect myself… but the steps stopped as I did. "H-hello?" asked a voice. There was strain and fear and pleading in it. "Please don't run away… I promise I'm not trying to hurt you…"

The voice was female, and younger than I expected. Much younger. Although I admit I wasn't expecting to hear a voice at all in the first place, and I had to wonder whether this was a person, like me. It hurt to hear the mounting panic in her voice… what was she so scared of?

"P-please… I need your help," she said, sounding more terrified by the minute. "Please, I'm so scared of the dark. I hate the dark. Please don't hide from me."

Slowly, moving as quietly as possible, I unwrapped my wings and started to stand up in order to creep away, knowing that somehow this time—night, I think it was called—made it harder for things to follow other things. I didn't understand why that was, but I knew it to be so. Then I heard the girl nearby gasp.

"Th-thank you!" she said, relief coming into the mixture of feelings I could sense from her.

Confused, I froze. What had I done to deserve her thanking me? "Wh-what?" I asked.

"You… you make the dark go away," she said softly, and started moving closer slowly.

"What… what is the dark? Why do you hate the dark?" I asked cautiously.

"What do you mean, what's the dark?" she replied, almost laughing. She still sounded terrified.

"I don't know what the dark is," I said firmly, taking one or two steps backward before inconveniently running into a tree. "Ow!" I cried as my tail got crunched by said tree.

"How do you not know?" she asked, confused. "It's when it's hard to see. Because the sun is gone, and there is no light at night. Don't you know the difference?"

"No, I don't," I said. Then I jumped as furry hands touched me, one on my chest and the other on my face. I sensed that the girl was studying my face carefully. "H-hey, stop it," I protested. "I don't like being touched without warning."

"You don't…? Oh. Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly, backing away in a startled manner. Even while not touching me, I could feel her body heat close to me. Suddenly I wanted to touch her. "You can't see? Your eyes are sick?"

"I don't know. All I've ever known is just… this," I said, gesturing around blindly with my hands. "Nothing. I can feel stuff… and run into stuff… and I can hear really good. But I can't… what do you call it… see. I can't see anything. Everything looks the same, eyes open or eyes closed."

"Oh… that's awful. How are you still alive? Do you have friends who glow in the dark like you?"

"No, I don't have people," I said. It was true. "I, umm… wouldn't know about glowing in the dark. What is that?"

"Your stripes, here," she said, touching my thigh with her finger. She traced out a pattern or two on it, which felt similar to the way tree bark felt. It tickled, too, when her finger danced across the fur on my leg. Then she moved her hand to my forearm, rubbing over designs there too. "They are like… like the sun was behind them. They make the dark into light, at night."

"Okay… I don't know what the sun is."

"It's… in the sky. I don't know. It's round and bright light, and it makes things warm up, too. I think. It's always warmer when the sun is in the sky then when it isn't. Sometimes clouds cover it up, and it's darker, but not dark like night."

"Ah… I don't know what the sky is, or what clouds are, but it doesn't matter. I… I'm Moonstone. Moonstone Riddle. What's your name?"

"Kimmerald Silkie."

"Hello, Kimmerald."

"Hello, Moonstone."

Suddenly her arms wrapped around my bare torso, her fur tickling me, and her skin feeling cool and soft against mine. Her torso seemed to have fur on it, but it felt different. Like clothes. I had clothes, too—a loincloth, my parents called it, which went around my waist—so I knew what they were. Sort of. And, since she invited me, I put my arms back around her and started touching her all over. Her hair, long and curly and soft; her shoulders, bare skin; her neck and face and furry ears; then I went downward, finding a fluffy tail and digitigrade legs like my own. She giggled as my fingers danced lightly over her, never staying on one place for more than an instant. When I straightened back up, she hugged me again, and I let my hands still, one on her back and the other fondling her hair subconsciously. I liked the feel of her hair immensely. It was like nothing I had ever touched. Actually, Kimmerald herself was nothing like anything I had ever touched, except possibly myself. She was so soft, warm and delicate and so very, very soft. Suddenly a notion occurred to me. "Hey, you aren't freaking out," I pointed out. "Most things freak out when I touch them. Don't you feel weird with me touching you?"

"Well, kind of," she replied after a moment. "It's a little weird… but since you can't see with your eyes, I figure that touching is like seeing with your fingers. I don't really mind... no-one's touched me in many winters… but don't do it again without asking. Now you know what I feel like, so hands off."

I couldn't help smiling at her growing confidence with me. I found that I liked the ornery way she spoke to me now that she was comfortable instead of terrified. Right then, I resolved never to run away from her again. I would help her live in the dark, and she might even help me live in my blindness. I wasn't sure how that would work, or what would happen if I tried to take her with me. All I knew was that I was never going to hear her speak so fearfully again, not if I had anything to say about it.

~A few years later…~

"Consarnit, Moon!"

I grinned hugely and tightened my grip around my friend's chest from where I hung upside-down behind her, my face pressed into the small of her back as she struggled to get away. Kim wasn't exactly a fan of how I pranked her. She never expected it, much to my amusement—she should have figured out by now that being blind didn't hinder me in ambushing her. "Hey, stop it with the elbows," I protested, laughing, as she drove those appendages into my elongated torso. I noted then that she was laughing, too, and proceeded to tickle under her arms, causing her to go limp and then jerk wildly as she shrieked with laughter and redoubled her efforts to escape me.

Later, as night came on, Kim complained about tired lungs (from all the laughing I made her do) and somehow managed to convince me not to move on tonight. I was a little peeved at having to stay in the same camp we'd been in for a full sun-cycle already, but her excuse was technically my fault, so I knew I couldn't push her. It wasn't at all fair to either of us. What also wasn't fair was that she refused to build a fire, thus preventing my leave during the night. I would be doing no rounds about the camp to satisfy my need to move. She further blocked me by shoving me into a hollow spot at the base of a tree and proceeding to cuddle into me, laying in my lap and leaning into me, her head on my chest and her arms around me loosely. She was asleep almost as soon as she had us situated, and I had no escape. It felt like payback for trapping her in my arms earlier, and I could feel a sense of irony in the whole situation. Kim was smart, I'd give her that. Too smart, even, sometimes.

Sighing with respect and annoyance at the same time, I resigned myself to sleep right there for the night… and wake her up as early as possible to avenge myself. However, even as I plotted this revenge, I found myself curling protectively around the stubborn girl, tangling one hand in her hair and tightening the other arm around her waist, holding her tightly against myself with the subconscious urges to make sure she stayed safely near to me. She told me time and time again that I was clingy. I guess I proved that to myself as I wrapped my wings around her to stop her shivering, and buried my face in the top of her head, breathing her scent deeply so that I would know the instant I stopped smelling her and wake up. There was no way she would leave my side while I slept, and for once, she wasn't awake to complain about my "paranoid" efforts.

When I didn't fall asleep, I had plenty of time to realize how comfortable I was with the smaller person clutched against my body. Usually we didn't sleep together l like this; one on each side of the fire was our normal arrangement for when both of us were sleeping, which in itself was a strange occurrence. We had cuddled together when we slept in the trees in the past, but never because we wanted to. It was necessary in the trees to hold onto each other so that we would both wake up if one of us fell out. So, it came as a surprise when Kim plopped herself down on top of me tonight. I tried not to overthink it, which was hard. She did it so that I wouldn't roam, I told myself. But part of me didn't want to believe that.

In the morning, I ended up letting her sleep in, which made me feel confused at myself. I snoozed off in the darkness that was Planet Moon, listening with half a mind to the sounds of the morning creatures making their morning sounds. That was how I determined the time, since it was always dark in my universe. Later I heard Kim's breathing change, showing that she had woken up on her own—before midmorning, at that, which surprised and pleased me. What didn't please me was that if she was awake, she was going to complain about how tightly I held her, or about my fingers snared in her hair, or whatever else that bothered her, and she would get up—but then she didn't. I knew she was awake, and I think she knew that I knew she was awake, but she didn't say a word or make a move to get away. In fact, I think she deliberately nuzzled her face into my neck a little.

After a while, I asked softly, "Kimmy?"

"Mm," she moaned softly, sounding so comfortable and happy that butterflies started dancing in my stomach. "What is it, Moon?"

"I… nothing," I sighed, absentmindedly rubbing her scalp gently with my fingers. I decided that I didn't mind not moving this morning as long as I didn't have to let go of Kim, and my unseeing eyes shut slowly. "Just want to… say good morning."

"Oh, Moon… I wanna say good _night_."

I smiled, and was slightly surprised when I physically felt her lips move as she did the same. A warm tingle ran through me, and I had to stomp on the urge to say something flirty. She hated when I said something flirty, and I _really_ didn't want her to get up. My wings tightened around her slightly as that thought ran through my head, but she apparently didn't mind.

"Are we going further North today?" she asked minutes later, still sounding sleepy.

"Not if you don't want to move from this spot," I said before I could stop myself. I cringed inwardly, for she might think I was trying to flirt with her… but she seemed not to take it that way, thankfully.

"Okay, well, we have to move eventually… to hunt and stuff…" she yawned. She was clearly feeling similarly to me about travel, at least for now.

"We can hunt at night, can't we?" I teased.

"You want to stay here all day?" she asked, mock-incredulous.

"You don't?" I replied, mimicking her tone of voice.

She chuckled, and moved one arm from the hug she had been giving me. I didn't know what she was doing until she propped herself up on her elbows, giggling, with her paws on my cheeks. I smiled warmly at her, but left my own eyes shut, as I didn't know where to look. I gently removed my hand from her hair to put it on her cheek, simultaneously sliding my other hand up her side and over her shoulder to do the same thing with it. I felt a little weird stroking her like that, but she didn't mind when I did, because she attributed it to my being blind. Kim spread her wings a little from their folded position, knocking the tent made by my wings down off of us. I let my wings fold in slightly by reflex, not bothering to move them on purpose. Kim took a breath as though to say something… but then she hesitated before, apparently, deciding not to speak. She leaned in and gently touched her forehead to mine for a moment, then sat up, fingertip pads lingering on my chest. Her motion made my hands drop to her shoulders.

"Moon," she said, but then stopped again. She clearly had something she needed to say to me, but didn't really want to say it aloud. I let my hands go loose to gravity, allowing them to slide down from her shoulders to her wrists, where they rested in the fact that they didn't have to use any energy. I opened my eyes uselessly, thinking it might coax the words from her mouth. It didn't.

"Kimmerald," I said softly and firmly, and I sensed that she did her best to meet my gaze. "Kim. It's okay if you don't wanna say anything."

"I do want to," she protested, lifting her hands and then putting them down atop mine. "I just don't know how to word what I want to say."

"That's fine; you don't have to worry about it. I'm pretty confident in my ability to understand you."

"Heh," she gave a weak chuckle. I was fairly sure she was still looking at me. "I just… em… Can you—can _we_ sleep together more? Please? It's so much nicer than the fire and I… I don't know. I want to—to say something else. I don't know how. And I liked last night. It was so… I don't know… it was nice, Moon, and I felt so much safer with you there."

I blinked slowly, and then nodded. "Kimmy," I said, "I'm glad you felt safe with me. That was the idea, I think. We… we can do that more often. Just not every night. I have to move, you know."

"I know," she said. She sounded somewhere between pleased and sad. "I still think it's ridiculous that you push your limits all the time—"

"Just because I can't see—"

"—even so, I understand that you need to do what you need to do. It's your problem if you get gobbled up while I'm asleep anyway," she said jokingly.

"… I'm not going to get gobbled."

"Just you wait. It'll happen one of these nights."

"It's always night in here."

"Don't change the subject."

~Back in the present…~

I ceased howling sometime during the night, hoping that at least my glowing stripes would lead my friend to me when my panicked cries did not. No such luck. Kim didn't come, not all that night, not in the morning. I was beyond worried about her at this point. What if she was hurt? What if she was looking for me, but we were too far apart? Would Kim and I ever find each other if she went searching the wrong way? I berated myself again and again over leaving her to find food alone. How could I have been so stupid?

At one point during the day I thought I heard cries of a language I understood, but they were far off and distorted. I started crying for Kim again, feeling ridiculously like some kind of baby cat calling for its mother, but my voice was beginning to fail me. Desperate now to make sure I was heard, I howled and howled until my voice ran out completely. _Consarnit,_ I thought to myself, _you stupid, useless voice. How dare you run out on me when I need you to call Kim?_

I guess I wasn't heard, because the sound I thought was a voice was swallowed by the jungle sounds and I didn't hear it again. When morning stretched and became afternoon, the hunger set in. I sat there uselessly in that tangle of vines, unable to catch anything to eat and not looking forward to the thirst which was sure to start nagging at my empty stomach soon. I had come to depend on Kim for finding water, since she was so much better at it than I, and since I was so lost, I had no idea where to start—if I could even get out of the trap I was in. I let loose a weak little whine, hoping against hope that Kim would find me soon.

~~~(Kim)~~~

The day was unfruitful, which frustrate and worried me to no end. I became snappy and unsociable and I knew it, but I didn't care. In fact, the only thing I _did_ care about was finding my glowing companion, before something else did. Even as the Croods, who had been so helpful and nice to me, were starting to head back in the direction of their camp, I lingered in the jungle, unwilling to give up. I climbed trees and raced around through the undergrowth for hours into the night, not noticing until way late that they had all gone except Eep, who still followed me around sleepily. I collapsed into the whole in the base of a huge tree that I recognized as the spot where Moon and I had cuddled on purpose for the first time, more than a winter ago now. I crawled into it like a wounded animal and curled up in Moon's spot to cry. Eep sat down next to me and rubbed my shoulder comfortingly, which sent ghost-tingles up my side where I so distinctly remembered Moon stroking me in his sleep and then when he woke up, too. I realized right then, way late, what the expression on his face that had so confused me had actually been, and then I bawled afresh. It was horrible. I couldn't stop myself from going through my memory, finding other moments in it where Moon had acted oh-so-slightly off and I had felt the same way as that night—and I realized that I hadn't realized what I had in Moon before I lost him. It made me feel like someone was squeezing my heart, cold and tight and merciless. How could I have been so blind? _Ironic that I couldn't see, when he's the blind one, not me,_ I thought.

I couldn't sleep here. I wanted to sleep, but the memories held in this little nook were too much for me, and I ran out into the night again in search of those beautiful glowing stripes. I couldn't rest until I found him, or at least my mind couldn't. I felt like I would never relax again until I found Moon and said what I had failed to, back in that spot, a year ago. I had to explain something to him, something important to me and potentially to him, and I needed to do it as soon as I was able. I had to.


	3. Chapter 2

**Okay, here's chapter 2, in all its mushy glory. I hope you all enjoy it. Now that this mini-arc is over, I can start on the more serious stuff in the next chapter. I know it probably feels a little fast, but the stuff in this chapter was never meant to be the main part of the story. You'll understand the description of the story a little later. See you then!**

* * *

I was vaguely aware of being lifted in the air, but I wasn't paying much attention to anything right then. I was too tired and hungry to care where Moon might be taking me. I turned inward slightly, pushing my cheek up against his chest, near where I had painted on him earlier in the day. I felt him fondling my shoulder, where he held onto me, with a certain familiarity which I had noticed him cultivate over the past few seasons. He never seemed surprised when I touched him anymore, or when he touched me. His big, furry hands knew every inch of me now—well, mostly. He never asked where his hand was anymore, and he seemed to be able to reach his target far more easily than he used to. Occasionally he would try to touch my face but miss by a few inches, so I would have to lean into it, but he was getting better and better. It was strange, if only because of how natural it felt.

Moon carried her quite a distance before he sat down carefully on something, holding me in his lap still. I let my head rest on his shoulder as he rubbed my back gently. "Kimmy, how do you feel?" he asked me softly, rubbing his cheek on my forehead in order to check my temperature. I groaned in response and subconsciously nuzzled into his neck. I was feeling pretty terrible, actually, to the point where I couldn't answer around the lump in my throat. "Oh, Kimmy," Moon sighed, hugging me gently. "You never know when to give in, do you?"

"Mm-mm," I agreed to the negative. "Never."

"Well, what am I supposed to do to help you, silly? I can't find herbs by myself and you can't do much of anything when you're sick."

"I'll tough it out," I said.

"Uh-huh. Have fun with that."

"Hold me," I complained, wrapping my arm around his neck and my tail around his leg in my desperation to put as much of my body as possible against his. Only he could comfort me now. "You'll see. I can do it without eating nasty herbs…"

"They may be nasty, but they're good for you. You probably wouldn't get sick if you ate your—what was the word you used?"

"Greens," I said, chuckling.

"Consarnit, you're delirious," he muttered under his breath, which was ineffective because his mouth was right by my ear. I flicked my ear in his face to let him know, although he was probably aware of it anyway because he was so familiar with me. "Whatever, your _greens_ ; you should eat them."

I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, but this time he would know it because it would touch him— _and,_ it would be gross if I licked him. I pushed my forehead into his neck a bit more and grumbled, "I'm not listening to you anymore…"

"Of course not. When did you start listening to me?"

"Very funny, Moon."

"Some not-listening skills there. How can you reply if you aren't listening, Kimmy?"

"Bite me," I replied, flattening my free ear against my hair.

"That is a very immature response," he pointed out.

"What makes you expect something different?"

"You're still listening."

I got over the gross factor and dragged my tongue across his neck, making him squirm. He made a sound of disgust and protested, "Hey, you're going to make me sick."

"Nooo…"

"Hey, don't you go to sleep. Sleep makes you work slower and you need to get healthy."

"Whatev… er…" I yawned hugely in the middle of the word, and then nuzzled back into his neck, not minding that my saliva was still there. I felt him shudder a little.

"Eww _wwww_ ," he complained. "Now I _really_ know you're sick."

I merely giggled, easily amused in my feverish state of mind.

~Back in the present…~

I was in a hummock when I woke up the next afternoon, which was confusing and unsurprisingly painful for my legs. I started to try to get out of it but yowled and froze as my sore muscles locked up in protest to my motion. Apparently, I ran around the jungle for longer than I was aware of myself last night. They must have carried me back… _but where are they now?_

I looked around for the Croods, seeing none of them… except Belt, I noticed, who was snoring softly right near to the head of the hummock. I picked him up gently in my paws, lifting him near to my face. He made a tiny groaning sound and slowly blinked his eyes open. When he saw my eyes mere inches from his own, he squealed in surprise and flinched back, then seemed to remember who I was.

"Sorry," I whispered, breath blowing back the fur on his face.

He shrugged, sighing, as if to say, _'Whatever.'_

"Where is everyone?"

He pointed down the beach, to the North.

"Are they hunting?"

Belt nodded, and then shook his head.

"Meaning…?"

Belt made a circle with his claws and looked pointedly at me, clearly expecting me to understand. Weirdly enough, I did.

"Moon."

~A few days later…~

Their method of searching seemed far more efficient than mine; however, my patience wore thin. I told myself again and again that it wasn't _their_ fault that our efforts were unsuccessful, but it was hard to get around the mounting panic as we continually failed to find him. Moon couldn't find water by himself, I knew all too well, and what if he was stuck somewhere? He wouldn't be eating either if he was trapped in a tree or under a snare vine or captured by some beast. My mind unhelpfully continued to imagine all kinds of events that may have occurred, when I was awake or asleep, resulting in the appearance of Grumpy Kimmy, who hadn't emerged since my second year with Moon. It was very frustrating.

Ugga seemed to notice the presence of Grumpy Kimmy first, and she suggested I take it out by hunting. Thus, I was pulled into the job, becoming a regular on all the family's hunting parties. I was often an ambusher—they'd chase the target toward me and I would attack it with all I had. Unsurprisingly, and to Ugga's pleasure, the hunting did help with my mood most of the time.

Not today.

Today I had woken bright and early with the rest of them, feeling happy, for we were finally at the point where we were searching a ring of territory that was almost exactly the same distance as Moon's average _fly-this-far-without-crashing-into-a-tree_ range from the campsite we had started covering rings around. However, the search wore on through the day, and no-one sounded their signal horns. I didn't find hair or hide of my friend, and when evening light started to make itself clear through the trees, I told my partner, Thunk, "You might want to just head home now."

"What? Why?" he asked, throwing his shell for the umpteenth time for his pet Croconine to fetch. "Get it, Douglas! Why should I go home, Kim? We've got lots of time left. Good boy, Douglas."

"Because I don't want you to follow me into the next ring and then get tired," I said, standing up on my legs for the first time in hours to stretch. "So, unless you've got _lots_ of energy left…"

"Oh, we'll be fine. Right, Douglas? You wanna help Kimmy some more, Douglas? Yeah? Okay Kim, we're in."

I shrugged, sighing at Thunk's nonchalant manner, and said, "Okay, if you say so… c'mon, let's get further out. We should go East—it's perpendicular to Moon's original route, and away from the beach, which means it's the most likely path he took. Remember to keep an eye out for high-hanging vine clusters where he might be stuck."

"Okay, Kim… what's per-pen-licky-lar?"

"Perpendicular," I corrected automatically. "It's one of Moon's words. He said it's… like trees. See how the trunks go up, and the branches go side-to-side? Moon says the trunks are parallel to each other, and the trunks are perpendicular to the branches. So, East-and-West is perpendicular to North-and-South. Get it?"

"Not really… but I get the trees part. They make that shape that's almost the same in all the trees. Is that it? This?" Thunk asked, making a cross with his two arms.

"Yes," I said, nodding. "Very good. Now, let's take a turn this way and go a little deeper into the woods, 'kay?"

"Sh-shouldn't we signal that we're going deeper first?"

"Nah, they'll figure it out on their own."

"Okay. C'mon, Douglas."

~Later…~

"There! Oh! That's him!"

I surged forward on all fours, racing to the faintly glowing heap of a person. Moon was trapped under a bush, one crawling with snare vines and with "licker-leggers," which was Moon's term for huge, greasy leaves that stuck to anything that touched them like frog spit. I knew he hated those things. I cried out for Thunk to help me move the plants as I clawed at them frantically, trying to get to Moon. I heard Moon groan softly as I reached him. I picked up his upper half, cradling his head in one hand and supporting his back with the other. His wings were strewn about haphazardly, so I stuck two fingers into the pressure point Moon had shown me a long time ago which made our wings close up by reflex, getting nearly instant results from it. I brushed the hair off of Moon's forehead and discovered that his temperature was warmer than I had ever felt it. I looked closely at his hair, which was mostly coloured with a couple white streaks, opposite of his fur. Then I looked at his stripes. Was it the tears in my eyes, or was that vibrant blue looking sickly and yellow-green? His skin, mostly his face actually, was red.

"Oh, Moon," I sighed, trying desperately to hold back sobs as the tears streamed down my face. "Why did I ever let you out of my sight? You poor thing…"

"K-Kim…?"

I had never been so happy to hear his voice. Except maybe the first time he spoke to me.

"Is he okay?" Thunk asked, looking very concerned. "He's got the sun in his hair…"

"It's not the sun, it's—"

"Fire?"

"No, not fire. He glows. Haven't you seen glow-bugs?"

"No."

"Well… whatever. Thunk, can you please go get the others? Tell them we found him, and tell them I need help, fast. He's sick, very sick. Oh, and leave Douglas here."

"I—o-okay," Thunk said, eyes widening. He backed up out of the thicket we had made, then turned around and bolted, shouting, "Stay, Douglas!"

"Wh-who… who is that?" Moon asked weakly. His hand moved slightly toward mine, so I clasped it gently to save him the trouble of moving.

"That's Thunk. He's a Crood. The Croods are people, like us… sort-of like us. They helped me find you."

"Mm," he murmured, a tiny smile playing at his lips. I rearranged my legs carefully, trying to get from the crouch into a more comfortable position. I then moved my hand out of his weak clutch to his face, brushing his hair back again… and then my hand decided to stay on his face, straying to touch him the way he had to me which I had never tried before. I closed my eyes as I gently ran my fingers over him, trying to pretend I was blind and this was the way I saw people. It felt so weird. My paw pads danced over him, tracing his jawline, tickling his nose, rubbing his eyebrows—I even ghosted my finger across his lips, making him smile again. "What are you doing now…?"

"I'm trying to be like you," I said. "I'm just touching, with my eyes closed."

"Why?"

The question made me stop, my fingers stopping where they rested atop his pointed-but-small-and-fleshy ear. "I… I don't know," I admitted at length. "I just… want to. Do you mind?"

"No, I don't mind…"

"Okay," I whispered. Then I remembered the Croconine. "Douglas, can you please catch something to eat nearby and bring it here? Like a Mouphant or something?"

The Croconine obediently turned around and stalked off into the jungle.

I went back to exploring Moon's face, this time keeping my eyes open, before I suddenly wanted nothing more than to start pouring out my heart to him. I had kept my mouth shut for too long, I thought. I started to order my words carefully, opened my mouth after formulating my thoughts, and—

A shell signal shattered the night-time sounds. It was very close. I took my shell out from where I had stored it in my hair earlier… and noticed that Moon had stiffened at the sound. "It's okay, Moon," I said soothingly. "It's a signaler. I have one too. I'm gonna blow it, and it'll make a noise, okay? It's just to tell them where we are. It's okay." Then I blew the shell as gently as possible to keep it relatively quiet. Moon scowled at the noise and promptly buried his face in my stomach in silent protest.

Soon the Croods arrived, almost simultaneously with Douglas and the small bird he had killed. I tore the bird to ribbons with my claws in an instant and started feeding it to Moon, and I slowly introduced Moon to each of them, matching their name with their hand. He voiced his confusion when he touched the first hand, Guy's, because it had no fur. I told him that they were all like that. He touched each of their hands with both of his own, chewing on strips of bird meat and muttering their names to himself over and over until he announced that he had learned the names of each of them by hand. Then, unexpectedly, he fainted. It took me, Grug, and Guy to carry him because he was so big, but we managed to get him back to camp. I filled my nest with an extra layer of grass and fuzzy-sided leaves, and then we moved Moon from the sand into the nest. I thanked them all profusely, crying once more as I did. Then I crawled down into the sand-pit nest next to Moon, cuddling up against his chest and burying myself in him as much as I possibly could.

He woke up sometime in the middle of the night and shook me awake gently, and asked me weakly for some water. I reached up out of the nest for a canteen which I had put there for this purpose, and sat up, propping his torso against myself so that I could dribble it into his mouth. Then, I realized that the mouth of the canteen was too wide—he would choke if I tried to pour it, no matter how slowly I did. He begged for it, however, and I was forced to think fast. I curled my tongue habitually as I tried to work around the problem… then it came to me suddenly, and I poured water into my own mouth. I turned his face toward mine, and leaned down slightly, pressing my mouth up against his carefully. With the water in my cheek, I forced his lips apart and let the water dribble oh-so-slowly down his throat, blocking the brunt of it with my tongue. He gulped the tiny trickle down greedily, and the moment I broke away, he started begging for more. I scolded him, telling him that too much at once would make him sicker… but then I couldn't handle hearing his pitiful voice complaining, and told him he could have once more mouthful. The second time, however, he didn't let me get away once all the water was gone. His hands slid up behind my neck and he pushed at me gently but firmly with his mouth. Confused, but strangely pleased, I responded in kind for a while, until I remembered that I had to breathe. I did so, hard and fast, when we broke apart a second time, and I found myself forced to meet his unseeing silver eyes. They seemed to glow alongside his stripes in the bright moonlight.

"What was that?" I whispered.

"I don't know," he replied at the same volume. "It was just so nice, I… I'm sorry. My parents used to do that to me, and I wanted to try, since… well, for a long time, really…"

"Hm," I replied, taking a final shuddering breath before I was taking in air normally again. "Moon, I… I wanted to tell you…"

"I love you," Moon blurted suddenly. His eyes widened, then fell shut. "S-sorry. I didn't mean to say that out lou—mphf!"

I did the thing again, this time to make him shut up. I broke off sooner this time and pressed my forehead to his, and murmured, "Me too. Now go to sleep so we can get you healed up in the morning."

He grumbled something under his breath, gave me one more, quick peck, then lay down, pulling me gently with him. He hugged me to his chest, giving my scalp a massage with his fingers as he did… then he spoke up again. "What's that noise, Kim?" he asked softly.

"What noise?" I asked.

"The whoosh-whoosh-hiss noise."

"Oh, the ocean."

"The what?"

"It's a huge, huge pool of water. Dark water. It's no good for drinking. I'll take you down the beach to touch it tomorrow. It moves around, making that noise as it hits the sand, which is why you hear it."

"Okay," he breathed, then buried his face in the hair atop my head. "It's so good to hold you again…"

"Yeah, it's good," I agreed softly. "I wish… I wish you'd never let go…"

"I won't."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

~~~(Guy)~~~

It was amusing to me to watch the two very tall people the next day. Moon didn't break contact with Kim all day, at least not that I saw, always having his tail twined with hers or his hand on her shoulder or _something_ to keep them both connected. Even though he was clearly sick, he seemed to work just fine, foraging in the jungle for medicinal herbs and edible plants. I wasn't sure how he did all that he did with blind eyes, but then I noticed the way he held his tail with the orb at the end. I compared it to Kim's fluffier tail and the way she carried it, and noted the differences in my mind. I realized late in the afternoon that the orb on Moon's tail had to be the answer. At the end of the day, I asked him about it.

"It helps me fly," he told me, snaking the thing around from Kim's side of the log to mine so that I could look at it. I looked closely at the inside of the glassy orb, and thought I saw something dark and pulsing inside.

"Maybe it's this liquid deep inside, there," I wondered aloud. "You say it helps you fly… does it help you determine balance, then?"

"That and direction," he replied, fingering his dinner absently. "I know when to turn with the wind, and it helps determine my height, too. It's sensitive, particularly to temperature."

"Woah," I murmured, and released the orb and tail. I watched it move around slowly, leaving my side and wrapping around Kim on Moon's other side. I couldn't help wondering what it must be like to have a tail. How would one move an appendage like that? How could we walk around? Certainly not straight up, I could tell that from watching the two of them move. Suddenly I noticed something else, which startled me because I had managed to overlook it all throughout my watching the pair today. Moon had a smooth _thing,_ not unlike the orb on his tail, embedded in his back, between his wings. I think it was the wings that made it impossible to see the deep blue, seven-sided thing. I looked closely at it and saw tiny swirls of sparkling sky blue and pearly white deep inside the thing. "What's that on your back, Moon?" I asked.

"Hm?" Moon replied, turning to me. "What are you talking abou—"

"That, Guy, is life itself," Kim interrupted suddenly, leaning back to look at me around Moon. "It's what he's named for, too—that's a moonstone gem."

"Moonstone gem?" I repeated, looking at it still. It was rather beautiful in the moonlight. "Life itself?"

"Yep. If those things get cracked bad or if they get taken off, we die," Kim replied.

"We?"

"Yes," Kim giggled, moving her hair with one hand so that it cascaded down her shoulder in front. This action revealed a vibrant forest-green "gem," which was an eight-sided figure similar to some flower's centers. "Mine is emerald, which is why I'm called Kimmerald. The Kim bit comes from my mother, kunzite, and my father, moldavite, combined. Actually, I was rather shocked when I saw that you guys _don't_ have these. 'How can you live without them?' I wondered. But, it seems, you can and do. It's just one more difference between us."

"Oh, okay," I replied, thinking about her _emerald_. I noticed right then that everyone else, except maybe Gran, was listening in now. I stopped staring at Kim's back when she put her hair back down, covering up the shiny green gem.

~~~(Kim)~~~

Weeks passed. We stayed with the Croods, helping and being helped, for as long as Moon's patience would allow. However, his wanderlust made him itch to get out of there from the moment he returned to full health.

I had a treat for him, but now I couldn't find him. It was difficult for me to transition. Before, after we found him, he wouldn't keep his hands off me. Now, he was gone more than he was there. It wasn't as though he was avoiding me; our jobs separated us. At this time, I had finished hunting for the day, but Moon, Think, and Gran were all out gathering still. I ran through the jungle, eager to find him quickly, for the treat was starting to melt in my fingers. I tripped once, getting the stuff smeared across one side of my face, much to my annoyance. I got up and kept running.

"Hey, Kimmy," Moon's voice startled me from above as I stopped to catch my breath. He dropped down out of a tree in front of me, and outstretched his hands. "What's the rush?"

"Ah, ah, ah," I scolded him, moving my hands away from his. He scowled. "I've got you a snack. I found some chocolate plant growing and grabbed you some."

"Did you smash it up the way I taught you?" he asked eagerly, reaching out his hands again.

"Yup," I replied. "Although I accidentally knocked it in with my face. I tripped and fell on it."

"The chocolate or your face?"

"Both."

Moon laughed, and instead of going for the chocolate, he grabbed me by my upper arms. With a mischievous grin on his face, he leaned in close to me—and dragged his tongue up the side of my face.

"Ew!" I squeaked, unable to escape without spilling the chocolate out of the bean casing.

"Mmm, chocolate Kimmy," he chuckled, licking me again. "My favourite."

"I don't know why I—"

He cut me off with the mouth thing again, which he had christened the Kiss earlier in the week. When he broke off, grinning hugely, I said, "We need to go back to camp."

"Eh, later. Let's eat the chocolate first," he replied, nibbling the last of the melty chocolate off the corner of my mouth. I couldn't help but smile, even though I was kind-of grossed out.

I led him over to a rock that we could sit on and fed the chocolate to him. He ate it right off my fingers, which I protested, but secretly found pleasing. Cleaning the stuff out of my fur was not fun, but since he was so good at touching things, he knew how to get every bit of it off of me and down his throat. Also, having him groom my fur was actually rather pleasing, which I would never admit out loud. Once finished with my hands, he caught me off guard by starting up my forearms, and I didn't noticed what he was doing until he had cleaned one arm up to my skin. "Hey," I protested slightly, trying to ease my hands away from him. He held on tight and kept on licking, starting on my right arm now.

"Mmmm," he repeated as he finished, bringing his face close to mine. "Yummy Kimmy."

"Leave me alone."

Moon laughed and wrapped his arms around me. "Never gonna happen," he growled, purring as he pulled me up against his body. I sighed and let him hold me, neither fighting it nor going with it.

"Oh, Moonstone…"

"What?"

"…"

"Kim. Kim, what's on your mind?"

"Nothing."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Would you believe me if I said interior design?"

Moon laughed again, and I giggled a little bit. Then, suddenly and without precedent, I sobbed and buried myself in his arms, crying. "Kim?" he asked, concerned. "What's the matter…? Did I do something wrong?"

"No," I whimpered. "I-I don't know. I don't know why I'm crying!"

Moon rubbed my back with one hand, then leaned back, and tipped my chin up with one hand. I met his eyes, seeing nothing but warmness and love there. _He really loves me,_ I thought. _Is that why I'm crying? I'm in love?_ He didn't give me the chance to think that over, leaning down and capturing my lips once again.

"Moon," I whispered, eyes closed and still leaking tears.

He kissed my forehead and murmured, "Don't cry, Kimmy…"

"I think it's you," I said softly. "I think you're making me cry…"

"Why?"

"Because… because…"

"Hm," he hummed, and then put his forehead against mine. "You know… my mom once told me that love is torture."

"Torture?" I repeated, startled.

"Yes, torture… is this torture?"

"I… yes. I think it is, actually."

"I love you, Kimmy."

"I love you too."

~~~(Moon)~~~

~Several months earlier…~

 _I love you._ Three words. How hard could it be?

Very hard, apparently.

I had had the chance to tell her, mere minutes ago. She had curled up into my side as we leaned against a mossy rock for the night, fire near to our toes. She had murmured out a story to me, telling me about something that had been troubling her recently. I listened, consoled her a little… but I couldn't force those three words from my traitorous mouth. Now she was asleep; I had missed the opportunity.

I thought about it, about ready to beat myself up at this point. I had missed several opportunities to tell her how I felt about her. Why? Because I was stupid; pure and simple. I had been stupid, and there was no other way to put it. I had either chosen a sarcastic comment, or had gotten choked up, or _something_ that prevented me from breaking through the barrier of friendship and stepping up to the next level the way I so dearly wanted to. Why was I so bad at this? I wasn't afraid of Kim… okay, maybe a little…

Where had I gone wrong? I had tried and tried over the past few months. I flirted with her some, which she took as me making fun of her, unfortunately. It was beyond frustrating to me that I wasn't able to make myself clear enough. Years ago, when my mother used to tell me all kinds of stories about herself and dad, she told me that she had to make the first move because he was too scared. At the time, I had scoffed, and cockily told her that I could get any girl I wanted without waiting for her to make the move. She had smiled and shook her head—I remember her hair moving on my shoulder, could hear the smile in her voice. It was incredible how easily I read her; I could almost _see_ when my mother was around. I think that I realized I loved Kim when I found that she made me feel the same way. So, why was it that I was ready to take on anyone as a little blind kid… but now that I was a grown blind man, I couldn't say three words to one girl?

Maybe because Kim was real. Maybe, I couldn't talk to her because she was really there, warm and soft and talkative and hotheaded and _there_. Whatever girls I imagined as a kid, they weren't real. They were easy to tackle, as figments of my imagination. But Kimmerald Silkie was different from them. It was a different I liked, but it came as a curse. What was it my mom told me? _Love is torture_ , she had said. I thought it was silly at the time. _"How can something so great be so bad?"_ I asked. _"It's not bad,"_ she told me. It had only confused me further.

I sure as heck understood now.

~~~(Kim)~~~

~Slightly post present…~

I wasn't prepared for the full force of Moon's love for me. How could I have been? I had recognized him hinting at it before now… but I never took it seriously. If I had taken it the way he probably wanted me to, I probably would have been better equipped to ride this tidal wave of affection and care that Moon suddenly hit me with. Reality had slapped me with a cold, dead fish—and I was not ready for it.

When I was alone, which didn't happen much anymore, I would sit and ponder the past I had shared with Moonstone Riddle. I thought I knew him, thought I could anticipate all his tricks, but _damn_ , was I wrong about that. Even though I could recount every time he came close to uttering those three words to me, he had managed to keep me from predicting that he would _actually_ say it—and mean it, at that. Moonstone, the blind man, had blindsided _me_. And when he struck, he struck hard.

It wasn't that I didn't love him back. I did, deeply so in fact. It was just overwhelming to me, the way he gave me a bajillion little presents or caught me alone at just the right time or somehow made what had been blind help-me-outs turn into physical affection. It became very hard to breathe around him, particularly alone, _particularly_ in close quarters. He did keep a certain distance, after a fashion, and never came too close to his invisible border… although it was starting to feel like the border was no longer a norm, but an obstacle. I think he was feeling that way too.

The proposal came by moonlight. Of course. This was where he worked best, under that blue glow from the sky; the time for action was then, while his gem's namesake was bathed in that light and his energy was at its fullest. It happened right near the ocean, on the beach, a mile or two down from the Croods' campfire. Moon and I had so carefully cultivated our relationship prior to that night; I had no qualms or hesitation in accepting him as my mate. I guess we both knew, then, that this had been coming since that first night we had spoken, maybe even since we started keeping tabs on each other, each wondering if the other was safe to coexist with. The Croods didn't see hide or hair of us for a time after the Blue Moon. Moonstone was done with their company for a while, and I didn't mind his moving so much anymore. We didn't go terribly far, but the Croods had no chance of finding us unless they grew wings and learned to fly, because we put ourselves in a position where they couldn't get to without taking a huge detour we avoided by gliding from treetop to treetop over the swamplands. I think I can unreservedly say that those months were some of the best in my life.

* * *

 **(Mmm... Chocolate Kimmy, my favourite...)**

 **(Hehehe, that was one of my favourite parts to write. There'll be more fun stuff like that in the future, alongside the serious stuff. Otherwise this story would be no fun at all.)  
**


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